WINNT.sif question for Unattended Setups

[Ruahrc]

I recently made an unattended setup CD with the latest SP2, updates, drivers, and everything like that when I last set up my PC in April. I even created up a WINNT.sif file which included my XP CD key and username, etc- so that the setup would be completely unattended.

I want to burn a new XP Setup CD for my dad- but want to remove my XP CD-key and name from the CD so he can use his. I want to leave it blank too so that he will be able to use the same CD with all theh updates, etc. already installed on multiple machines.

Is this merely a matter of erasing the CD-key from the WINNT.sif file? I copied all the contents of my XP Setup CD to my hard drive and edited the WINNT.sif file for a friend, so I know how to create a new bootable image and burn the iso and everything... but when I did it for my friend he put his own CD key and username into the .sif file. What I want to do now is make it completely blank.

Could someone let me know if this would work? Just erasing those certain entries in the winnt.sif file? Here is a copy of my winnt.sif file (personal info removed of course)... just want to make sure it works!


---------------------------------------------------------
;
; Generated by nLite 0.99.9 beta
;

[Data]
Autopartition = 0
MsDosInitiated = 0
UnattendedInstall = Yes

[Unattended]
UnattendMode = FullUnattended
UnattendSwitch = Yes
OemPreinstall = Yes
OemSkipEula = Yes
FileSystem = *
WaitForReboot = No
NoWaitAfterTextMode = 1
NoWaitAfterGUIMode = 1
TargetPath = Windows
Hibernation = No

[Display]
Xresolution = 1024
Yresolution = 768
BitsPerPel = 32
Vrefresh = 75

[SystemRestore]
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 10

[GuiUnattended]
AutoLogon = Yes
AdminPassword = *
TimeZone = 04
OEMSkipRegional = 1
OemSkipWelcome = 1

[Shell]
DefaultThemesOff = Yes
DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

[Components]

[UserData]
ProductKey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" <--Can I just make these fields empty or have a * in them?
ComputerName = XXXXXXX <--
FullName = "XXXXXXXXXXXX" <--

[RegionalSettings]
Language = 0409

[Networking]

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup = MSHOME
------------------------------------------------------------


Thanks

Ruahrc

[John Prophet]

not sure about the whole unnattended and sif thing.....I never quite mastered that while messing with win2k


on WinXP...to strip off the XP product key you need to use "sysprep" which comes in one of the folders on the xp cd

I havent done it in a while so I forget the particulars....but there are a couple of threads here about that...if you search for "sysprep" you will find one of the threads I did where I outline it exactly (I think...I see a lot of sysprep threads when I search)

or just google for Xp sysprep etc


basically what you would do in your case is do the XP build....update it etc.....then you would run "sysprep" and what it does it strip off the product key etc and then shut the machine down...now AT THAT POINT...you would ghost it to make your copy etc

then when he uses the image it will come up and ask him for his product key....this is what Microsoft calls the 'OOBE' (out of box experience)...this is how dell sets em up except they dont ask for the key, they ask for name etc etc.....you can set up sysprep to do a few different things etc

msoft article http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...c_cai_vnve.asp

--------------


errr, one thing....the hardware needs to be the same if you are going to use it for several different machines


JP

[[Neo770]]

Not really the hardware, but more specificaly they need to all be able to use the same HAL as that cant be autodetected on boot like other hardware can.

At least thats how I understand it.